Suzy Klein
Unforgettable television even if it leaves me totally unnerved.
But then there is
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60, titled Leningrad
December 1, 2019
November 16, 2019
More Tower Block Cladding Fires
I note that the fire in the students’ Cube at Bolton East looks like a replica of the Grenfell Tower though thank heavens no one seems to have been killed there.
I note that the Labour MP is Yasmin Qureshi but is not reported to be yet on the scene; if so this a grave omission.
But I note that Yasmin fell foul of the media by seeming to compare what is happening in Gaza with the Holocaust some 5 years ago.
She has since apologised.
But I personally feel that the comparison has some truth even though subsequently removed, as the wars of attrition continue unabated between Israel and Gaza. I note that only yesterday an Israeli plane killed a whole family in Gaza “by mistake”.
September 6, 2019
Michael Gove: the Air Raid Warden in Dad’s Army
Michael Gove. He was like an air raid warden from Dad’s Army. He had plans for supplies of medicines and food. Trucks were assigned to country lanes. Guards were reinforcing Dover. Two billion pounds will pour into farms, fisheries, manufacturing and hospitals. No expense will be spared, no cost too great, to keep the dastardly foreigner from our shores. MPs purred. They loved it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/prime-minister-war-rhetoric-trade-negotiations
July 26, 2019
Jaw, Jaw rather than War, War; Brexit needs a resolution by the UK
I understand that Churchill said ‘Jaw, Jaw is preferable to War, War.
And I wholly agree.
I do note that despite his thesis he put his whole effort in applying his whole effort into our war with Nazi Germany; he did not follow up Neville Chamberlin’s appeasement.
We are now faced with Johnson itching for war with the EU.
Should we applaud?
Johnson is the self-acclaimed Churchill look alike
I suggest No.
The EU is no Nazi Organisation.
The EU is the stanch upholder of the United Nations Charter of Human Rights; indeed, the EU has its European Charter too.
Jaw should triumph over war as long as the target is with the Human Rights Charter.
BTW I worry that the UK could now revoke membership for the European Charter under Patel.
The elevation of Johnson to PM is a disaster, none of the papers I read says otherwise, only the Tory Rags appal. The Johnson Cabinet is a Cabinet of Horrors.
Yet I accept that there needs some resolution of Brexit. There needs to be some Jaw; Jaw rather than the current standoff.
Resolution is not going to come from the EU.
If I go back the the Churchill War cabinet, much of the success politically was the inclusion of the Labour Party led by Clement Atlee; and as well as winning the war, we had the Beveridge Report – foundation of the UK Social State.
I ask why can’t the Tories and Labour recognise the total mess that is the UK and work together. May, to her credit, tried to but the two sides would not compromise or had not the guts to stand up to their own party members.
Compromise is the essence to good government as long as it remains with is the boundaries of the Charter of Human Rights.
Let’s have some Jaw, Jaw rather than War, War within the Westminster Parliament.
Equally true in Holyrood also and even at the Council level where one party proposes and the other has to oppose on principle.
BTW It grieves me to say so that Johnson responded well at his first Question Time even if I disagree with his answers.
Perhaps hope even at this time for a Government of National Unity to avoid outright War with the EU. Though whether Johnson or Corbyn are anywhere near the calibre of Churchill or Atlee remains in doubt.
June 6, 2019
Macron and Trump
Macron or Trump – World Leaders
On looks: I know who I would turn to
Macron and Trump at Colleville-sur-Mer
June 5, 2019
Britain must not turn its back on the world made possible by D-day
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/05/britain-d-day-commemoration-trump-brexit-war
I cannot emphasise more clearly Kettle’s message
My primary school lessons were paused to hear a live broadcast from the landing on the D Day morning.
75 years in Europe without a major war. Brexit is at best an anachronism.
March 24, 2019
Music to make you forget Brexit – for just a while
A Weekend of Music
Friday: RSNO Three pieces.
- A new commission by Paul Chihara, A Japanese, as a child in a relocation camp in the US during WW2. The piece was called A Matter of Honor. Music and Narration. The last narration finished with “when asked in 1942 if she believed that peace and freedom were possible anywhere in the world: “Yes, with all my heart, because in this faith, in that hope, is my future, and the world’s future”
- Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninov. The pianist was Olga Kern and required much stamina to be heard over the full orchestra which she did
- Symphony No5 by Prokofiev. The ultimate antidote to Brexit.
How Rachmaninov and Prokofiev got by the Russian sensors in 1934 and 1942 is unclear to me as both were certainly not in the classical style of Brahms; much more ‘romantic’.
Saturday Scottish Opera performing Katya Kabanova by Janacek. The music to me is tremendous, the Scenery of based around the Volga with a bridge over was a construction to be marvelled at. All so much as to overawe the singing. Katya throws herself into the Volga at the end, not surprising as the possessive Mother in Law was demonic; not one to welcome home!
And today Sunday, a much more relaxed performance with Dvorak, Bartok and Strauss by the strings of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The Strauss was Metamorphosen. One of his last pieces and one to let the music wash over you. It was written for 23 strings but the SCO managed very well with just 7. Strauss wrote it on the back of WW2. Will see a Musician of his calibre to write similar music on the back of Brexit; we can only hope.
March 18, 2019
DUP, Brexit and The Good Friday Agreement
Following on from my Blog: Derry Girls, Bloody Sunday and the Border
I consider it a deplorable situation where a party in Northern Ireland, the DUP, is determining whether the whole UK is leaving or remining in the EU. The DUP, although the major party in Northern Ireland, JUST, has no formal political power in that country as the Northern Ireland Parliament has not met for 2 years over an issue that was at least in part due to the First Minister’s (Arlene Foster) dealings on electricity.
I state straight away that I feel that the UK leaving the EU is a disaster and am biased. During the last 50 years, Europe has been war free; not being an historian I don’t know when this occurred before, but I suspect it is quite long ago.
Oddly, some 20 years ago, I was on a plane back from Germany and I spent the whole fight defending Ian Paisley and the feeling that the protectants in Northern Ireland felt uncomfortable with the dominant catholic population in Southern Ireland next door.
So, I was elated when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, and I can still remember the photo of the Chuckle Brothers: Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuiness (Sinn Fein), (see in the article below)
Not only is the DUP now threatening the UK that they may only support Theresa May’s EU Deal if they are doled out more cash, they are, in practice at least, threatening the Good Friday Agreement itself.
For a more substantive argument than mine on the DUP’s intransigence see Patrick Cockburn’s article in today’s Independent.
Incidentally while Tony Blair has been much criticized since leaving office, he did, as Cockburn’s article states. reach agreement with Southern Irelands Prime Minister on the Good Friday Agreement.
March 5, 2019
Frank Field – Independent Labour MP for Birkenhead
I was born in Birkenhead, well the posh part to the south, Bebington, not that that was that posh as it was just half a mile from Port Sunlight, the soap factory of Lever Brothers where just before going to Liverpool University I did a vac job for 2 months.
But back to Birkenhead, Field was after my time; after graduating I headed south wanting to go to Singapore with the IGY. No such luck, I joined the Scientific Civil Service near Windsor and moved into computing and spent my working life in many aspects of the subject. I am not complaining, computing was new and exciting in those days.
But again, back to Birkenhead, I can still remember cycling around Birkenhead Docks; there were docks in Birkenhead then for cargo ships that overflowed from Liverpool on the opposite side of the Mersey. The docks were exciting places to cycle around with ships from all over the world. But many’s the time I got my front tyre stuck in the embedded dockside railway lines and fell off.
It also built ships at Cammell Laird’s; I watched the launch of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal
You can get an overview of Birkenhead at wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenhead.
Everyone worked in Liverpool, a ferry boat away, or you could risk your life cycling through the Mersey Tunnel; fine going down to the middle but hell cycling up the other side with lorries trying to inch past you; I did it for a year but after that got the ferry and the tram. I did well predate the Beetles
All that’s by the way, although I have seldom been back I still feel an attachment to Birkenhead and I am proud of Frank Field and independent Labour soul who chairs the the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
He is quoted “In December 2017, during a debate on Universal Credit, Field described the impact that Universal Credit changes had had on his constituents. His observations moved Work and Pensions Select Committee member Heidi Allen to tears”.
He is an avid supporter of Climate Protection and features the protection of rain forests; all excellent, but I cannot agree with his attitude to Brexit even though I can see where he is coming from.
But you might like a piece in today’s “I” on “Ending benefits freeze to ease poverty”.
You may admire a new sculpture in Birkenhead Part of the exhausted solder in remembrance of WW1.
February 13, 2019
Babel – a piece by the Venezuelan Pianist and Composer Gabriela Montero
Babel
We have just been to a concert given by the Scottish string orchestra, the Scottish Ensemble.
The programme was called Babel after a new composition by Gabriela Montero and focused on the interplay between Music and Politics. The music covered the modern period from Shostakovich, Glass, Vasks, and finished with Messiaen ‘Quartet for the End of Time’. Messiaen wrote it while a prisoner in a German war camp and played it at a camp ‘concert’; the piece this evening was transcribed just for violin and piano; the violin, played by Jonathan Morton leader, sang out piercingly above the piano, played by Montero and you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Written I understand for cello, violin, piano and clarinet certainly didn’t suffer for the transcription.
The Shostakovich was his Chamber Symphony written after the death of Stalin and a lot freer because of it ; while the Philip Glass featured two violins first in dissonance but finishing in harmony but backed by the full strings. The Vasks in contrast brought in the Environment and very much the personal.
But the centre piece was written and played by Gabriela Montero called ‘Babel’ and the music centred around political unrest in Venezuela. Montero is Venezuelan and present-day Venezuela hurts her, and this piece of music was written before the latest turbulent event. The piece is for piano with Montero playing piano and for strings, the Scottish Ensemble being a string orchestra made the most of it; hurt mixed with laughter.
The Scottish Ensemble wins hands down of all the orchestras we go to. They act as one and clearly enjoy playing together, as they did this evening. A lot of this night’s music was painful, the Messiaen in particular, while the Vasks piece had a serenity and the Glass had a rhythm and repetition that mirrors the modern world. We were asked to hold off clapping till the end but when the end came the applause was overwhelming. This was enhanced by Gabriela Montero pulling out of dress a Venezuelan Flag and bowing; the audience was cheered.
Gabriela Montero talking on her new piece if you would like at
Mike Vickers' Blog 